Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/545

 THE LITERARY INTERESTS OF CHICAGO 529

The Rambler never secured more than 5,000 readers, and the experiment cost its promoters several thousand dollars. Its chief result of permanence was the training Mr. Flower had through it for writing the humorous sketches and fiction which he has since contributed to magazine- and book-publishers elsewhere. Vanity Fair was the name of a " literary and society weekly " which was of sufficient interest to be listed in the newspaper annuals for 1885 and 1886. Applet on' s In the Swim, a "literary, travel, and society weekly," engrafted on an advertising trav- elers' bureau, flourished from 1887 to 1891. And a "pictorial weekly " having the name Life was attempted in 1889, but did not survive. A monthly in regular magazine form, designated the Society Magazine, and filled with selections from the periodicals of England, came out during the entire calendar year 1888, and left a file in the Public Library.

A most creditable monthly for "gentlemen of wealth and culture," -as its advertising read, was Wildwood's Magazine, edited by "Will Wildwood" (Fred E. Pond), and undertaken in Chicago in 1888. During its first year it was devoted to "the higher literature of manly sport." " To readers seeking reflection of the charms of woodcraft we offer the work of contributors whose genial essays partake of the breezy character of forest and field," said the initial number, which commented on the expansion of the literature of sport during the twenty years just then past. Perusal of a file in the Newberry Library shows that the magazine contained charming tales, essays, and memoirs of sportsmen. Both in subject-matter and in form its pages made a pleasing appeal to the play instinct, which some of the authoritative psy- chologists say is essentially the same as the aesthetic interest. But at the end of a year, Charles Hallock, the former editor of Forest and Stream, became associated in the editorship, a philosophy of the serious interest in outdoor activity was announced, the name was changed to Recreation, and " geological picnics " were organ- ized from a branch office at Washington. This brought public ridicule. An editorial retort in the magazine listed the national capital as "the graveyard of journalism," and a delightful